Several weeks ago a bunch of loosely connected marketing professionals in Ann Arbor started meeting for lunch on Wednesdays at Eastern Flame on South Ashley (map). The group draws from a wide range of disciplines and anybody is welcome, whether you are a hard core marketer or just want to learn a little more about the trade in a casual setting.

LA2M (pronounced “Lamb”, not “Lame”) typically draws anywhere from 6 to 15 participants, each with a unique viewpoint on the week’s theme. Previous discussions have revolved around blogging for business, wikis, outsourcing, marketing challenges, and how to land large clients. Several of the discussions have resulted in further collaboration between two people or companies, which benefits the local economy by keeping more marketing and advertising dollars in Southeast Michigan.

Why is this important? For one, it helps tear down the walls between competing firms. Additionally, since the participants come from all fields and backgrounds, many of the silos between various marketing functions are removed. This small group model works well for seeking advice on actual cases or theoretical situations.

For more information, check out any of these resources:

ConnectAnnArbor blog

LA2M Facebook Group

I am happy to announce that the transition from home office to official business address was a complete success. As of January 2nd, Your Search Advisor is officially headquartered at 306 South Main Street in Ann Arbor, a.k.a. “The Brickyard”. The full address is:

Your Search Advisor, LLC
Lower Level, Suite A
306 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

The location in downtown Ann Arbor is fantastic. I am within walking distance to nearly everything I could need to keep my business running (mainly food and coffee). The space itself is fantastic. It’s below ground in an old commercial building and next to a Jeweler and several upscale women’s clothing stores. Despite being underground and windowless, the space is somewhat modern and open. The pictures are from a few days ago, and more furnishings, rugs and people are on the way.

Click on these photos for a better view, or check out Dan’s panoramic shot.

In addition to me, there are 4 other tenants sharing the space:

• Ross Johnson and Derek Mehraban of Ingenex Digital Marketing
• Dan Cooney of Cooney Information Group
• Brian Kerr

There is one open desk if you know anybody that is interested. Stop by and say hi! Stay tuned for details on the office warming party.

[UPDATE] Google Apps users can opt-in to new features and services within the Google Apps admin panel. This post explains how to opt-in to the Google Docs offline access.[/UPDATE]

I had the privilege to attend a Google Apps presentation in Ann Arbor last night. The event was hosted by Google in coordination with The Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce at the Boardwalk Creative Center. The presentation was basically an intro to the suite of productivity services as well as a pitch to larger organizations to take advantage of the Premier Edition. Having used Apps for about 6 months now, I was unsure of how much new information I was going to learn from the presentation. Afterwards I was glad I went. Okay, the free food and networking also helped me make the most of my time. Sorry for the poor image quality. The dim lighting is not ideal for my Treo’s camera.

The main presenter was Scott Johnston, the former VP of Product Development at JotSpot and new Googler (Noogler). As any fan of Google (Foogler?) already knows, JotSpot was recently acquired by Google and is currently being integrated into the Google Apps family of products. He walked the group through the rationale for the acquisition, which fits in nicely with Google’s mission to “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. It makes perfect sense, given Google’s focus on the user, their status as the world’s largest supercomputer, and their rapid innovation and product development cycles. All of these combine to bridge the “Information Black Hole” as he described it, which causes information retrieval to be an expensive, complex and unreliable problem.

I won’t get in to too much detail on the existing Google Apps suite since information abounds and it is free for anybody to try on their own. The following list of interesting information came from Scott’s teasers of the services to be offered when JotSpot is fully integrated, as well as the audience Q&A session.

• Google Sites: Scheduled to be launched sometime next year (2008), Google Sites will expand upon the Google Page Creator already offered within Apps. Based on JotSpot collaboration tools, Sites will allow business to set up intranets, project management tracking, customer extranets, and any number of custom sites based on multi-user collaboration. [UPDATE] I don’t recall wikis being mentioned specifically but I assume they are part of the plan.

• Will users be able to edit docs, spreadsheets and presentation offline? Scott’s answer was yes, and that the Google Gears plugin would handle the offline work. In addition, Google Gears support is in the works for Gmail and Google Calendar.

• What happens when somebody edits a document offline at the same time another user is editing the online version? The same algorithm that reconciles simultaneous editing will apply here when the offline version is merged back into the online version. Changes will be versioned the same way, so basically in chronological order.

• Will Google docs have OCR capabilities for importing .pdfs or other graphical files? Not yet, but perhaps someday. Scott couldn’t comment on the “roadmap” for future enhancements. However, the collaborative Google Sites (based on JotSpot) will allow for upload and storage of any file type.

• Will GrandCentral be integrated into Google Apps? If so, when? Again, Scott didn’t comment on the timing but said they are working on it and it is a “huge priority” for them.

• Will Google Spreadsheets ever have advanced features like pivot tables, macros or offline database integrations? (This was actually my question) Scott said they are constantly trying to find the balance between speed and utility. It will never be a heavy duty analytics program because that would be too heavy and bulky for the average user.

• Will Google Apps support video conferencing in addition to Google Talk and Chat? Scott’s answer, “Not yet”. I got the impression from his body language that it’ll come someday, but nothing more was said.

Following Scott’s presentation and Q&A, there were breakout sessions to learn how to integrate and migrate to Google Apps, how to use Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations to collaborate in realtime, and how to administer the program for users. I only attended the session on using the software, and was surprised to learn many tricks I didn’t even know about. Most of them replicated what you can already do in Excel, Word and PowerPoint, but many were unique to Google Apps such as being able to dynamically query Google in a spreadsheet cell for info from Google Finance or web search.

All in all, it was a very helpful presentation for the uninitiated as well as the long-time Apps users like myself. I would encourage you to try it out. It’s free, easy to set up and will only improve over time. Don’t cut the cord to MS Office just yet, but this may make most of your daily tasks much easier.

[UPDATE] I’ve seen a lot of questions and speculation regarding this post, and I’ll do my best to clear up as much as I can. If you have any other questions or were at the event, please leave a comment and help fill in the gaps. I’ll answer as best I can, but many of the details people are seeking (timing, product names, etc) were not provided in the presentation. Thanks!

• The event was hosted by Google in partnership with the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce as an intro to the services for local businesses and organizations. I don’t believe it was intended to be the “official” announcement of the Apps plans for 2008. The event was well attended and at least half the audience I polled were already Apps users and familiar with the services. This led to some very specific questions during the Q&A, during which most of the juicy information was related.
• I used the term “Google Sites” for the JotSpot integration. That was the name Scott used in the presentation, but there’s no way to know if that will be the actual name of the service when it is released. I don’t presume to know what the final plans are.
• There was no clear indication how the “Google Sites” product would interact with the current Google Pages. I don’t think it will replace Google Pages, but they will most likely be linked in some way.
• The issue of security has been raised in several venues. Scott used the analogy of a bank during the presentation. Most people trust banks enough to deposit their money instead of hoarding it under the mattress. We know it will be there; secure and available when we need it. Google wants to achieve this level of trust with its users and they believe they have the most secure systems in the world (he actually used that phrase). I’m sure this applies not just to Apps, but to its personalization and web history programs as well.

This is going to be fun. I have been asked to speak to a local high school class about “Life as an Internet Marketing Consultant“. This isn’t a normal high school class either. The students attend the Ann Arbor Community High School, an alternative high school for students that want to create their own coursework and engage in self-initiated learning opportunities.

Some smart students have taken an interest in online marketing and are learning how to use Google Adwords in partnership with the Ann Arbor Google office and the Google Grants program. As part of the coursework, the students manage live Adwords campaigns for local non-profit organizations.

How cool is that? I would have killed for a high school class that actually teaches a marketable skill that directly applies to the modern workforce. As a product of a liberal arts education, I do pretty well at the general knowledge categories on Jeopardy and I usually win friendly games of Trivial Pursuit. But I would have paid a lot closer attention if I was actually running an advertising campaign with Google’s money.

For the next few weeks I’ll be thinking about “Life as an Internet Marketing Consultant” from a different perspective. High school students aren’t going to respond to the same PowerPoint presentation that I would put in front of a CMO or VP of Marketing. I will have to explain my existence and value proposition in an engaging way, marrying the message and medium in the way that they are used to consuming content. These students are the future of our industry, and I want them to understand the immense opportunities in front of them and appreciate the head start they will have on their peers.

Look for more follow-up posts as I develop an interactive presentation that I will ultimately open up to the community. If you have any ideas, let me know!

One of the first things I did when I moved to Ann Arbor is look for the local Chamber of Commerce. They weren’t too hard to find. After perusing the Chamber website and determining that it is a healthy, active group, I contacted Cheryl O’Brien, the Membership Director. We talked about my business, what brought me to the area, and what I want to accomplish through the chamber. She did a great job explaining the numerous benefits of chamber membership and provided a calendar of events, most of which looked appealing.

As a new resident, I figured there would not be a better way to jump headfirst into the local business networking scene. As a newly minted Search Engine Marketing consultant, I thought it would be the best way to drum up some local business and meet Ann Arbor’s movers and shakers. I was right on both counts. Right out of the gate I attended a breakfast event with Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow. She spoke about local and national issues that affect Ann Arbor businesses, as well as her initiatives to improve the business climate. Politics aside, it was a great opportunity for business owners to interact with their elected representative. I met several local business owners and learned about their challenges and opportunities in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Shortly after the breakfast, I was visited by Greg Peters, a volunteer on the Chamber’s Ambassadors committee. Greg runs a full-time web development company called Cyber Data Solutions, but spends a little time each month visiting new Chamber members and distributing a bag full of propaganda literature. He helped by explaining more of the networking opportunities the Chamber offers and different ways to get involved. Much of our discussion revolved around marketing and the internet in general, which he deftly summed up on his blog, Clearing Up The Confusion. Many thanks to Greg for taking time out of his day to welcome a new Chamber member.

The next event I attended was a member reception at Vinology, a local wine bar and another Chamber member. They hosted a great event that drew about 75 or 100 people together to network and relax a little. The martini bar definitely helped with the latter. Actually, it helped with the former too. I met many interesting people there and learned about all different types of local businesses.

The one common thread that everybody shared was wanting to grow their business. I was able to share a lot of ideas with other people and learn more about their online/offline wins and losses as well. I now have several new contacts in the community and some great ideas for future networking opportunities. I will report regularly on other Chamber events and their impact on business. From what I can tell so far, it’s only going to be good things.